SALT LAKE CITY — With the support of Utah adoption agencies, the Legislature’s Interim Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to move forward draft legislation that would limit “adoption tourism” in the state.
The bill comes as reform advocates say some agencies have been recruiting vulnerable women from other states to Utah to give birth and place their children for adoption. Some of those women have said they didn’t understand their rights or even felt coerced into relinquishing their children.
“There’s been multiple investigative reports of some unethical behavior,” Rep. Katy Hall said of the legislation’s origins during her presentation on Wednesday.
The latest draft of the bill – which will now move forward for additional consideration during next year’s legislative session – would require all adoption agencies to be licensed as nonprofits beginning in 2027. It would also prohibit agencies from arranging transportation for women to the state beyond 36 weeks of pregnancy and create a 72-hour revocation period for an adoption after signing consents.
The legislation also includes new language prohibiting agencies from engaging in “coercive behavior” – including “threatening financial or legal retaliation if a birth parent chooses to parent” or “promising a financial benefit in exchange for the birth parent’s relinquishment or consent.”
But perhaps the biggest change in the legislation is the limitations it would place on payments for pregnancy-related expenses to adoptive mothers. Utah Adoption Rights co-founder Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard told FOX 13 News previously that those payments are “the incentive to get moms to come out here.”
Utah law currently allows for “reasonable” pregnancy-related costs to be paid to birth mothers, but advocates have argued that language is too vague.
A previous draft of the legislation would have limited such payments to $4,000 – an amount some adoption agencies felt was too low. The language approved Wednesday doubled that cap to $8,000, though agencies could expend more funds with court approval.
“I guess the question is, will this bill get us to where we’re not having a bad reputation but having the best adoption policy in the country, which is where Utah should be?” Rep. Cory Maloy asked during debate on the bill.
“I actually think it does,” Hall responded.
Rep. Nelson Abbott, one of two committee members who voted against the bill, said he’d heard some “disturbing conduct” related to adoptions in the state and hoped to strengthen enforcement of Utah agencies. But he added that he wasn’t supportive of the limitations on payments to birth mothers.
“I still don’t understand as we sit here today how placing a cap on living expenses or weekly allowance or gifts helps mothers,” he said.
Reform advocates say they believe financial support should be used as a resource for mothers, but they want to ensure it’s not used as an incentive or a way to trap women into placing a child for adoption.
Rep. Jason Thompson was among the lawmakers who expressed support for the bill, which he described as a “huge step forward for the state of Utah and protecting birth mothers.”
“I’m not a big regulation guy,” he added. “But there is a place for regulation when we need to keep bad actors in check.”
Some adoption agencies had expressed concerns about previous drafts of the legislation. But Matt Holton, a lobbyist representing several of the agencies, voiced support for the current language of the bill, saying it had made “incredible strides” in recent weeks.
“At the end of the day, we want a better adoption process in the state of Utah,” he said.
Holton noted that there are “some things that committee members have brought up” and issues the agencies would like to receive a closer look ahead of January. But he expressed a commitment to continuing to work collaboratively with lawmakers moving forward.
“We’ll see you all in January,” he said.